Greek police said on Aug. 5 that a 21-year-old Pakistani has admitted smashing a 15-year-old girl’s head onto some rocks on the island of Paros where she was vacationing after she tried to prevent him from stealing her cell phone but have not confirmed initial reports she was also raped.

State television NET said that an angry crowd was waiting at the airport on the island when the man was returned there after being arrested in Athens where he fled on a ferry boat after the attack last month. The vicious assault has angered residents on the island who have dubbed the alleged perpetrator as the “Dragon of Paros.”

Police said he confessed after DNA tests matched him with samples taken from the girl. The man reportedly told authorities he had seen her sitting on rocks on the Chrysi Akti beach, not far from her family. He said when she fought him, he beat her head on the rocks until she became unconscious. She was reported in critical condition in an Athens hospital, suffering severe head injuries. Initial reports said she had been found behind rocks by her family and that the bottom of her bathing suit was missing.

The man had been working as a gardener on the island, news reports said and was apprehended after a random check, part of an ongoing sweep of unlawful immigrants by the government as extremist groups have ramped up anger against immigrants who they accuse of being the source of increases in crime. There were no details available on whether police would take extra precautions with tension rising in Greece against immigrants, spurred by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party which won 18 seats in Parliament and has allegedly been behind a series of assaults against foreigners.